Competition and team work delivers active travel in the workplace

Whenever we run a Sustrans online Workplace Travel Challenge it proves to be a highly cost effective tool for delivering and spreading genuine change in travel behaviour in the workplace.

The Challenge is part of the package of employee engagement activities
that Sustrans delivers in workplaces, harnessing the enthusiasm of
those who are already travelling actively, getting them to encourage
their colleagues to join them in an attempt to win this friendly and fun
competition.

“
On average, the proportion of employees meeting the
recommended levels of physical activity increases by 15 percentage
points as a result of the challenge.
”

On an individual level the Challenge
works by allowing individuals to log their active travel journeys and
receive personalised feed-back on how far they’ve travelled, how many
calories they’ve burned and how much money they’ve saved. This is great
for embedding new travel behaviours with employees.

However it is at an organisational level that the Challenge
really helps to spread positive change. To win the competition
employees have to encourage their colleagues to join in, and I’ve seen
this make all the difference in some workplaces we work with. By doing
this the Challenge can reach many of those employees who have been
contemplating change but just haven’t quite managed to take action yet.

These employees are encouraged to have a go whilst being part of a
group. By taking part and experiencing the practicalities, benefits and
enjoyment of travelling actively the Challenge helps those employees to take the first steps towards a new improved travel habit.

The group Challenge can also pit businesses against their local
neighbouring businesses as part of an area wide Challenge. We’ve also
been successful in running tailored and branded Challenges for
individual businesses where we’ve been pitting different departments
against each other in a single organisation.

Who would win in your organisation?

Our Challenges really do work at getting new employees involved
rather than just rewarding those who are already doing it. For instance
our post-Challenge surveys have found that:

for cycling around 50% of participants would class themselves as new, occasional or returning cyclists

we have an equal split of women and men taking part

we always create modal shift

over 70% of participants reduce their daily travel by car

And the Challenge isn’t just about increasing cycling, you can
choose to incorporate walking, public transport, car-sharing or even
home working (why travel when you don’t need to?).

Encouraging employees to travel actively makes good business sense. A
range of organisations are already reaping the rewards of this
behaviour change tool, including NHS Trusts, Ordnance Survey, RBS, Aviva
and Zurich.

And why wouldn’t they - employees who travel actively are generally
healthier, happier, more productive and take fewer sick days per year.
Reducing reliance on cars reduces the need for car-parking and helps
reduce local road congestion. These things are good for business.
Employees incorporate exercise into their daily routine and save money
too.

We’re now building on this success by starting to use the Challenge in Community and School settings too.

The Challenge is Sustrans’ web-based interactive employee
competition for cycling and walking. It allows individuals, groups or
entire companies to compete for fantastic prizes, each logging their
cycling and walking journeys online and contributing to the fun of the
Challenge.

Vxl Power in Lincoln achieved an impressive 100% staff participation in their Big Cycle and Walk Challenge.

Whilst there were already high levels of cycling, The Challenge
helped Tim McCann, Operations Director, get everyone involved. With over
1,200 journey miles cycled and walked by all 22 staff, Vxl power
deserved their Challenge trophy, and active travel events and activities
delivered by Sustrans.

Delivered with hundreds of companies, the Challenge is proven to
significantly increase the number of employees travelling more actively.

Challenge participants at six months report:

55% increase the amount of cycling they do

46% increase the amount of walking they do

55% decrease in the amount of travel by car

the proportion of employees meeting the basic recommended levels of physical activity increases from 38% to 53%

“
The Big Cycle and Walk Challenge provided us with the
opportunity and the incentive to encourage company-wide participation in
active travel. I believe that the Big Cycle and Walk Challenge made us
all think about and want to participate in, active travel.
”